Japan to introduce self-driving cars by early 2020s?

The Japanese Government is in talks with the leading vehicle manufacturers like Honda, Subaru, Nissan and Mazda to introduce self-driven cars in the market by the early 2020s.

Japan’s ministry of infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said that they are the first country in the world to seriously talk about the introduction of self-driven coupes. Ministry is all set to have a feasibility reports on the matter as early as March 2013 and will be trying to set its sight on molding this futuristic dream into a mainstream reality for the Japanese people.

But the most vital issue that has to be tackled is who will be blamed in case of crash or accident. Although the driver might be sitting at the driver’s seat, but since incase of an accident the driver will not be in the direct control of the car, it would be very much difficult to hold someone accountable. An alternative suggestion suggests blaming car manufacturers, but that will mean failing of projects even before they get started.

Another suggestion was to hold the operating firms accountable for any mishaps. Butin this case, the operating company could charge the passengers some static amount for taking control of the vehicle for a fixed amount of time or for a fixed proportion of the trip. In case of any accident the operating company will take all the responsibility leaving both owners and car manufacturers out of the responsibility.

If everything went as per the plan, the early version of the vehicles will have their own autonomous designated lane on expressways. If this project indeed becomes a success then it will hold a valuable lesson for rest of the world and will surely bring in a revolution of sorts in the automobile industry.